NASA plans mission to study mysterious “magnetic vortices” on the Moon

Mysterious Objects

NASA will send a spacecraft to the surface of the Moon to study “one of the Moon’s most unusual and mysterious natural features.”

The agency has awarded Intuitive Machines a new contract to send its Nova-C spacecraft to the moon as part of the IM0-3 mission, tentatively scheduled for 2024.

The craft will attempt to land in Reiner’s Gamma Rayner, a mysterious lunar vortex, and is expected to greatly expand our understanding of Earth’s natural satellite.

Lunar vortices.

There’s still much we don’t know about these vortices, including how they form and how they might be related to the moon’s magnetic field.

According to NASA, until 1966, scientists thought the vortices were craters. But NASA’s Lunar Orbiter II spacecraft got close enough to make sure they weren’t, which got scientists thinking. In 1972, scientists discovered that the vortices were magnetized, with one vortex on one side mysteriously causing other vortices to form on the opposite side of the moon.

“This expedition to the moon will help the U.S. expand our capabilities and learn more about this interesting region,” Thomas Zurbuchen, assistant administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

“Observing lunar vortices can give us information about the radiation environment on the moon and possibly how to mitigate its effects.”

Understanding radiation levels on the moon is key to NASA’s plans for a sustained presence on the lunar surface.

The IMO-3 mission will send more than 200 pounds of payloads on the Rainer Gamma, including equipment to measure the moon’s magnetic field. A swarm of small robots will also be sent aboard the spacecraft to create a three-dimensional map of the surroundings.

Lunar vortices remain a mystery. Studying them could give us important clues about the moon’s magnetic field and how we can protect future astronauts from the fierce solar winds hitting its surface.

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